Irresponsible blogging at its best

November 19, 2011November 23, 2011

Benny Lava – Buffalax

The Indian movie scene is rife with music and dancing numbers. By American standards, a lot of it is silly. The women sing in high pitch and the men try to be ice cool. Now, we’re not slamming the better fare out of Bollywood (even great movies like Lagaanhave catchy numbers with dance troupes), but we are poking fun at the formulaic rom-coms and dramas.

An Indian friend explained to us why dance choreography in Indian cinema is so popular. The Indian culture is highly social, and music and dance have been an integral part of it since forever. Indians are also very eclectic in their tastes. If it looks good, smells good, feels good, sounds good, they easily adopt it into their pop culture. He told us that Michael Jackson and other American dance artists are immensely popular, and since Indians are naturally attracted to large and showy festivities, music and dancing are bound to happen in significant quantities. So, just like Americans like violence and sex in our movies (what the hell does that say about our personal interest?), Indian social culture leads to an interest in large Bollywood extravaganza. Since we lived in India, we can attest to that. They know how to partay!

Perhaps it may seem like we are poking fun at an ethnic group and that doing so is in poor taste given that our last post was on racism in Tintin, but that’s not the case. This video doesn’t mock Indians – it has a bit of fun with the absurdity of Bollywood popular cinema, just like we also mock American and European pop culture elements (see how we feel about David Bowie and Mick Jagger for example, for whom we actually feel serious disdain).

At any rate, we certainly enjoy a bit of satire, so let’s have a little fun at Bollywood’s expense. Here’s an oldie but goody video for your viewing pleasure.